It’s Happening!!! A little over two weeks after announcing their intention to expand field trials of their next game, Pokémon Go to Australia & New Zealand, Niantic Labs has today started sending out invites to approved field testers.

The email isn’t brief, but describes the general process of signing into a Beta Trial using the Play Store Beta Testing process and then downloading the game. The Play Store entry for the game indicates there are between 5,000-10,00 users who have already downloaded the game from the Play Store, so it’s a sizeable Beta trial.

The shroud of secrecy surrounding this exciting new game is prevalent with Niantic Labs taking extraordinary steps to ensure the mystery of the game is maintained for the actual launch. Niantic is warning Beta Testers that the Beta game screens ‘are digitally watermarked with your unique ID’ so any shared screens you see could sink your participation in the trial.

Niantic has previously spoken about and shared screenshots of the game, and official descriptions of what the game entails is up on the Niantic Labs and Pokémon Go websites.

Zoomed out view of the Pokémon GO Game Map

Zoomed in view of player with a Squirtle that just appeared

Squirtle encounter screen

A Google+ Community has also been setup for players in the trial to ‘share information and discuss game features and improvement ideas freely’. There is also a Pokémon Go help centre launching, both communities are accessible by invite only though, so no further information can be found that way.

There’s no indication of how long the trial will last for, nor whether it will expand beyond the current test areas of Japan, Australia & New Zealand. There’s no word on whether Beta testers will also be trialling the physical Pokémon Go Plus wrist Bands as well, but it’s time to start looking at wrists around Australia. It’s safe to say we’re pretty excited about this one, stay tuned for the full launch.

Daniel Tyson Editor

Dan is a die-hard Android fan. Some might even call him a lunatic. He's been an Android user since Android was a thing, and if there's a phone that's run Android, chances are he owns it (his Nexus collection is second-to-none) or has used it.

Dan's dedication to Ausdroid is without question, and he has represented us at some of the biggest international events in our industry including Google I/O, Mobile World Congress, CES and IFA.